What does Night look like?
by firelordlizzy
Summary: A trip to the market gets Toph thinking. What exactly is a color?


p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;"Sokka and Toph were walking through the market when Toph felt a tugging on her arm. Now, she had felt the person approach, but Toph didn't expect someone to pull her into a clothing shop. She just had time to grab onto and drag Sokka with her. The saleswoman stopped and gave an adoring look in Toph's direction. "Oh, I'm so sorry dear, but I just couldn't help it. You are such a beautiful young woman!" Even though she couldn't see it, Toph knew the woman was looking at her. "Your hair is so beautiful! I don't know how to describe it! And your eyes! I have never seen eyes such a light green! Don't you just love them?" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;""Um…" Toph didn't really know how to respond. The woman couldn't see that she was blind? Luckily, she didn't have to. The woman continued to speak, while Sokka stared. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;""I have this beautiful pendant that nobody will buy because it doesn't go with their eyes – silly people, it almost always goes with their dress – but I suppose it was for the best because this will look beautiful on you. It's a lovely ruby, just the right shade of red to offset and bring out the green in your eyes. And it's surrounded by sapphires, the bluest sapphires I could find, so it even looks purple sometimes. And the silver encasing lined with gold is just wonderful. And your hair is perfect with this dress I have. Its light green, like your eyes, and the lace is darker green. It has a sash that's yellow on one side and orange on the other. Personally, I think the yellow side looks best, but who knows? And these shoes are perfect, a light pink with orange designs. Oh, I'm rambling aren't I? Here, try this on." /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;"While she was talking, the lady had been bustling around the shop, and with the last sentence she shoved a butload of clothes into Toph's arms. Toph was ushered into an area closed off by a curtain before she could realize what was happening. Oh, the joys of traveling. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;"Toph exited the changing area and immediately felt ridiculous. She could feel Sokka's gaze. "I know, I know. I look stupid. You don't need to say it out loud." She said, expecting the worst. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;""I-what?" Sokka started. "No. Toph, you look beautiful. I wish you could see yourself." He said, some unknown emotion in voice. Toph felt herself heat up and punched Sokka in the arm to cover it up. "Thanks Snoozles. You do remember that I don't care what I look like though, right?" /span/p  
div style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border-style: none none solid; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-bottom-color: windowtext; padding: 0in 0in 1pt;"  
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; padding: 0in;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;""It didn't seem that way a minute ago, Toph." Sokka responded. "'I look stupid.' But you don't look stupid. The lady was right, the colors go well with you. She gave me some more clothes for you. I think we'll be here for a while. Apparently, this dress is 'the perfect shade of chocolaty brown to complement her fair skin. The hat accentuates her brownish-black hair and both go with her pendant and shoes.'" Sokka said, imitating the woman. "Also, the woman told me her name is Lien. I repeat, we will be here for a while." Sokka gave Toph the dress and hat, and she went back and changed. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; padding: 0in;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;"Sokka was right, the two spent all day at the shop. They ended up carrying four bags each to their little campsite. Sokka folded each clothing article and put it in the packs they had brought along on their little adventure. After a rough betrayal from Suki, Toph and Sokka grew close. So it wasn't surprising when Sokka dragged Toph on his travels with him. /span/p  
/div  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;""Sokka, what's color?" Toph asked. With a start, Sokka remembered that she was blind. Toph managed herself better than any seeing person. "I… that's a really hard question, Toph." /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;"Toph responded saying "I asked Katara what color is. She said it was like music. Each note is a color, and the flats and sharps were like the in between areas, where the colors mixed, and each octave is a different shade or tint. But I don't know what half those words mean. And from what I've heard, there are more colors than there are notes, flats, sharps and octaves."/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;""Well," Sokka started slowly, "Where do want me to start?" He asked. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;""Just, in general. Then get more specific." /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;""There are many different kinds of light. Humans can only see a small amount of this light or rays or whatever you want to call it. Color is visible light. From there, color is sorted by how warm or cold it is. Red and orange are considered to be warm colors. Blue and green are cool colors. Purple – also known as violet - and yellow are neutral, but yellow tends to be thought of as a warm color while purple is considered cool. The primary colors are red, yellow and blue. Purple, green and orange are secondary colors. The tertiary colors are red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet and red-violet. After that, the colors get confusing. There are hundreds and thousands of colors. Many of them are shades, tints or hues. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;""But that's not the description you want. Describing color is hard. Sight is literally your eyes seeing color and making sense of it. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;""Try comparing it to emotions. What emotion do you feel when you touch the rich Earth? Content? The Earth is many colors. Sand is often a yellow-y color, but sometimes it's gray or dull brown. Stone is usually gray or tan, and this rich Earth under your feet is a very rich brown. What about trees? Trees are two colors or more. Their trunks are brown and leaves are green. Some trees flower, and they can be pink or purple or white and even yellow, sometimes. In fall, the leaves are yellow, orange, red and brown. But how do you feel when you touch a tree trunk? Content, mixed with happiness? Those are two similar emotion, though they have some different characteristics. Tree trunks are brown, but not the same as the Earth. When you feel the grass between your toes, what do you feel? That is green. The sky is blue. Sometimes, water is blue too. That's the best description I can give you. Ask me about something and I will describe the color to you, as best I can. I hope I did a good job."/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;"Toph wasn't aware that Sokka could be so serious or emotional. She didn't know what to make of this new Sokka, but decided to do as he said. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;""What does night look like?" She asked./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;"Sokka hesitated. "It's hard. There are so many different aspects of emNight/em. I suppose it looks like sleep with sprinkles of adventure. That's what stars are, tiny pinpricks of light against a velvet sky. I don't know if what I just said means anything to you. Then there is the moon. You already know the story from when we visited the Northern Water Tribe. The moon is big. Most often it shines a silvery white or silvery yellow color, but sometimes, in autumn, it glows like gold or bronze. At night, all of the colors of things are muted; most appear black or gray. It's really hard to see at night, which is why all of us seeing people are so clumsy at night. There's this one line across the sky where the stars are all clumped together. It's beautiful." /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;""What do I look like, Sokka?" Toph asked./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;""What happened to 'I don't care what I look like'?" Sokka teased./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;""Just answer the question, Snoozles!" Toph punched him./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;""You have pale skin, to start off. It's tanned in the time you've spent with us, but I think it will always be pale. Your hair is black, but sometimes, if the light hits it just right, it looks like dark chocolate. Your eyes are green. Really pale green. They look like the foam on the waves in the Fire Nation beaches, but remind me of that candy Zuko's chef created; the minty one. You're kinda tiny. People underestimate you that way; you get to pound them harder. You have a 'button nose' and a small chin. You have large, round eyes and your eyebrows are delicate looking. I'm going to be honest. Everything about your looks screams "Delicate! Fragile!" and I mean that in the best way. People will always underestimate you… and when they do, we both know that they will not likely live to see the next sunrise. I don't think it matters what you look like though. You are the tough, badass, beautiful Toph. You don't take shit from anyone and you're not afraid to call bull." Sokka found himself leaning into a blushing Toph. "You don't need protection. You can take care of yourself. And if Toph goes down, the army goes with her. And then Toph gets back up… without the army." Their lips were almost touching. "You're my closest friend. I don't know what I'd do without you."/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;"And they met. She wasn't sure what was going on in Sokka's head, but Toph emsaw. /emIt wasn't anything specific… just explosions of color. One reminded her of the fire. Another was like a blade of grass. Every color possible. She didn't know which was which. She knew one of them was red, and another was yellow. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;"Sokka pulled back and Toph opened her eyes. She drank in the sight in front of her. A sight that was quickly fading. Sokka's eyes, his hair. She saw everything about him. "What color are your eyes? And your hair?" She asked. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;"Sokka looked confused, but answered anyway. "Blue. My eyes are blue. And my hair is brown. My skin is dark. It's not brown, but it almost is. And my parka is blue, too." He said. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;"Toph looked around. It was late afternoon. She saw the brown Earth and the green trees and the white clouds and blue water. emWater/em. Toph looked at her reflection. Her dark chocolate hair and minty eyes. She couldn't believe it – she could see! But her vision was fading. Fast. With her last seconds of sight, Toph memorized Sokka's face. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;""Toph?" Sokka's voice startled her. "Toph? Are you okay?" She realized she was crying. "A minute." She mumbled. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;""What? What are you talking about? A minute what?" Sokka demanded. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;""Spirits! Sokka! I could see. For just a minute. I saw you and I saw myself and the dirt and trees and flowers and oh! It was the best thing ever!" Toph said. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;""You could see?" Sokka asked. "That's amazing." Sokka smiled and kissed her again. Once again, she saw explosions of color. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;""Sokka?" Toph asked, when she had pulled away. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;""Yeah Toph?" He asked. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;""If kissing you lets me see every now and then, you are stuck with me."/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span style="line-height: 18.190000534057617px;"Sokka understood… and decided that he was perfectly fine with those arrangements. /span/p 


End file.
